Wait... what?

getting back in shape is turning out to be a lot like work. why was i looking forward to this again?

this is me after my run last night. my first time running since sometime mid-pregnancy. maybe december? 3.5 miles. 45 minutes. ouch. well... you gotta start somewhere, right?

the thing this picture doesn't show, is the drops of sweat running from my face & the bright redness that i'm sure comes just before passing out.

despite all of this, it felt great. it felt so good to hit the pavement again & feel the exhilaration that comes from pushing your body to its limits & running just a little bit faster because your favorite running song just came up in the shuffle.

so even though i feel like i'm starting from the very beginning, & i'm very humbled by the 45 minutes it took me to run 3.5 miles (hey, that's including warm up & cool down!) it DOES feel good to be back, & i AM enjoying getting back in shape.

it's just starting to feel a lot like work.

4th of july weekend

the idea was to spend friday-monday in clarkston with sam's family for the holiday weekend. unfortunately, when we got about 2 hours into our trip away from home, we got a phone call from sam's dad informing us that 3 of them were feeling pretty sick. like, violently sick. yuck. with our 2 month old baby in tow, who had just gotten all his 2 month shots & already had a compromised immune system, we decided to not risk it. just yet.

instead we took a detour to spokane & hung out with our good friends ryan & christie. we decided we'd keep a safe distance from clarkston & see if the sickness continued to spread. again, i didn't take a single picture in spokane. fail.

after spending friday & saturday in spokane, we decided we'd come too far to not see the fam, so we were gonna chance it amongst the sickies. it was worth it. it's always bound to be a good time hanging out with the nielson clan. lots of good times, good food, games, and the such as.


parker has grown so much since sam's family last saw him & was way more interactive this time around. here's his auntie jodi showing him some love!

on the fourth, we bbq'ed and hung out until it was time to go see the fireworks. sam's brother scouted out a pretty good spot on a hill where we could lay out blankets, let the kids run around, & enjoy the show.

oh, & maybe we ate lots of candy courtesy of sam's mom. maybe.


as always, parker took all the excitement like a champ, & ended up sleeping on my lap through the show. maybe he'll be old enough to enjoy it next year?


he also got to meet more family for the first time on this trip, kasey & laura, & their three super cute little girls.

in the end, a few more people did end up becoming casualties of the sickness that was going around, but we somehow managed to avoid it. maybe washing your hands incessantly really does work? i was seriously tempted to zip p-ray up in a plastic bubble for the weekend just so we wouldn't have to miss out on all the fun.

we didn't have to go to quite those extremes & everything still turned out just fine. another successful road trip & holiday weekend. woohoo!